Meet VUNK TOP 7 team: Marina Ahoy

In an alphabetical order get to know #GetVunked2015 team No. Four - Marina Ahoy & Co-founder Relika Metsallik-Koppel. They do like to tackle questions concerning the future of sailing and by doing so they have attracted together a team from different backgrounds and experience to take as much fun out of the process as possible. Ahoy!

Relika, what entrepreneurs do you admire and why?

I
admire all entrepreneurs who aren’t afraid of disrupting the norm and going
against the ‘accepted’ pattern of thinking and doing things. Those who
work hard on a genius idea, even when there’s a lack of initial support from
their peers because the idea seems too crazy or ambitious at first glance. I
look up to business people who’ve managed to turn a simple idea into an empire,
regardless of what other people think. The likes of business magnate Elon Musk,
Google’s Larry Page, and AirBnB’s Brian Chesky come to mind — not only because
they’re wealthy and successful in their business endeavours, but because they
achieved their goals using creative and often unconventional methods.

I’m
also inspired by entrepreneurs who innovate their industry’s market in a way
that’s never been done before. Those that are unique in their approach to
business and are, above all, completely fearless. More locally, I believe that
Estonians Rain Lõhmus (banking) and Reet Aus (upcycling fashion designer)
definitely stand out.

Tell about your team dynamics (culture).

We’re
driven by creativity, intelligence, fun and curiosity. As our team is still
growing and changing, it’s hard to define a fixed culture, but we’re definitely
looking for a specific type of person to join us and that type
has as much to do with the individual’s approach to life and entrepreneurship
in general as it does to their professional talents and skills. Even though
we’re working on a technical solution, first and foremost, it’s people that we
create the product for, and it's people that we work with, not machines.

This
strong human element is definitely a huge part of our culture already and our
fervour for it will only increase as we move forward.

What does success look like for your company?

R

ight now, our success is measured in terms of the faith our team members have in the idea, the company and the product we’re working on. This mindset, coupled with a good level of synergy between team-members with different talents and backgrounds, plays a huge role. Such cohesive factors will only make us stronger in the future as we further develop Marina Ahoy.

I can’t leave out having fun too! Working for a startup has to be fun – you experiment, you test, you fall, get up again, use common sense and then try a new approach, you generate exciting ideas and create something from zero. Trial and error is always fun, and you need to take every failure with a pinch of salt and learn from it. If it’s not fun for you, there’s no way you’ll ever be successful.

What will your market look like in five years as a result of using
your product or service?

Just
like the entrepreneurs I look up to, in 5 years time we will have completely revolutionized the way sailing and marina management is carried out all around
the world. Our plan for the future is not only to offer our product as a
communication and services platform, it will also hopefully play a huge role in
totally re-designing the marina ecosystem.

In
a few years the world will have self-driving cars. Why not have self-operating
yachts, which automatically communicate with the marinas, while the sailor
barely raises a finger? Why not bring sailing to the masses and simplify it in
a way that we cannot even imagine right now?

It
all starts with one crazy little idea and then the possibilities are truly
endless.

VUNK in 2015 & what's up next

As '15 is becoming to an end it's time to look back on our first batch and season. Plus what's our team's ambition for the next year? Read more »

21 Oct

Starting up from inside a corporate

In addition
to the two teams participating in the VUNK Accelerator programme today, quite a
few teams who did not manage to set up their team during the hackathon weekend
in August have independently developing their idea future.

For example Career3, a team from Eesti Telekom, was not able to find developers at a right time, but the energy of the authors of the idea has not run out – quite the opposite.